Diego Forlan has thanked Claudio Ranieri for allowing him to fully recover from his injury whilst also finding positives from the long lay-off.

The Inter forward missed 10 weeks of action for the Nerazzurri after pulling his hamstring whilst on international duty with Uruguay in mid-October. The 32-year-old has since returned to first-team action, but has still yet to complete 90 minutes of football since Week 2 in Palermo.

The former Manchester United man, however, is looking on the bright side and insists that whilst it is the first serious injury of his career, the timing wasn’t all bad.

“I’m fine. Very good. After all, this injury, ironically, was positive because it allowed me to relax and catch my breath,” commented the forward, who represented his country at the Copa America last summer and at the World Cup the summer before that. “Now I have resumed training with the team and am playing. I hope only to do well now.

“Ranieri has not hastened the timing of my return, instead waiting for the injury to completely heal. It is the Coach who decides. He knows what is best to do. He has many years of experience.

“Together with the doctors, they are taking the right decisions for me and for the team. I am calm and relaxed.”

When asked by ANSA what may have brought on this injury, Forlan has a list of contributing theories.

“It is simple. I have not had much of a break since the World Cup. After it, I played many matches with Atletico Madrid. To follow that I had the Copa America, with no pause between various competitions.

“Then I came here to Milan, a new team, everything different, another adventure. I had to deal with all this on the go.

“Then, the national team forced me to bear the consequences of the abrupt climate changes. First we played in Uruguay where the temperature was low, then after two days we went to Paraguay with the heat.

“I’m tired from a lot of circumstances, especially as I never stopped.”

Forlan then reflected on the mis-firing fortunes of the club’s strikers.

“We went through a difficult period but now the team is winning and this is important to retrieve the full confidence in our abilities.

“When you do not play well, you have fewer chances to score. However, players like [Giampaolo] Pazzini, [Diego] Milito and myself never forget how to score. When you retrieve confidence and things continue to run, strikers will return to scoring goals.”